About RELIGION and RESPECT

As I sit here listening to Hillary Clintons’ video I have this strong desire to share not only the video but also a post I received yesterday in an email from Posterous.

See, when I was little and for as long as I remember, my parents taught us (my sister and I) to be respectful at all levels. In other words: I should respect a person’s beliefs and opinions as well as their rules when visiting their home. Let’s see, what else, oh yes, I should not criticize, point fingers at and to say the least I should not constantly try to change anybody’s religious beliefs, generalize about their actions and or try to make a religion any less than what my beliefs are. Did I mention I should not make fun of people, their beliefs and opinions?

Do these preachers expect us to become believers of their own religion?

Why would we be crazy enough to try and understand them when their thoughts are deranged and the studies of their sacred books are conveniently twisted?

Who has given these people the power to judge and condemn others?

We are two days away from September 11 and nobody knows the type of harm this religious action may cause. Then to add a little more to this craziness a pastor full of nothing but hatred is accepting donations for the 9-11 Christian Center at Ground Zero.

Why are these people allowed to preach about hate and discrimination? Of course, freedom of speech!!!! Have we forgotten what believing in a higher power is about? Who ever told these preachers and followers their understanding of their sacred books is correct?

What a shame!!! I read about it, I hear about it and I can only do one thing, stay quiet. It saddens me to see the erroneous ways in which fanatics deliver their sermons. Things would be so much easier and happier if we all accepted each other the way we are. Isn’t life supposed to be about love and about knowing that deep inside ourselves we have faith?

The foundation under which my parents raised me always emphasized in following the right path and doing the right thing. As I write this post 3 things come to mind:

1 My father was an atheist.

2 My grandfather was Arab and a Muslim.

3 My aunt from my father’s side of the family was the mother superior of a Catholic Orphanage.

They were exceptional people with different beliefs and they all got along just fine. They were extremely intelligent with enough class to respect all those around them. When together, they had no need to preach to each other or discuss their religion. They did not hide in their own beliefs as an act of guilt or trying to get forgiveness. They were real. We should all be real in this world and remember that together and in the right frame of thought we can overcome all types of obstacles.

When I was little and for as long as I can remember, at home, we always said that to engage into a conversation about politics or religion was to cause a heated argument. So basically such subjects were always treated with pins and needles. Haven’t we all learned the same teachings? How convenient it is for people to forget basic childhood lessons.

Here is the video and below you’ll find the link to Posterous sent me as well as another article published by Yahoo.

When I was high school, Bill Clinton was president and was coming to town. My Dad was a San Jose police officer at the time and at one of Clintons appearances he was a part of the Clinton security detail. I remember saying at the dinner table that Clinton is a pig and if I ever met I would tell him so (this was right around the time that the Monica Lewinski thing came out). My Dad got so mad at me and said, “It doesn’t matter if you agree with what he has done, he is still the President of the United States and you will be respectful of him. Anyway that story just came to mind when I read your post.

The men in the articles that you referenced are disgraceful to the human race and especially to the religion that they claim. They are not solving anything by their proposed actions. Why add fuel to the fire? That is not what life is about. Every “group” of people has there fair share of bad apples. I can’t even believe that someone would call themselves a pastor and preach hate. It just doesn’t make sense to me.

I have been attending church my entire life and I have never heard a priest say anything hateful or negative about any group. I went to a meeting a few weeks ago for my churches “harvest festival” that is coming up. They were talking about different booths at the festival when the priest spoke about a booth called “the jail”. I guess the jail is supposed to be a funny booth were a sister or a priest is sent to jail periodically throughout the event. Anyway the priest said that one of the students last year was offended by the jail booth because he has a family member is jail. The priest at the meeting simply said, I don’t want to do the jail this year and would like to come up with an alternative, if we can avoid offending someone, then we should. It was as simple as that. So the group came up with “The Dog House”, which actually I think is much funnier. Like the old saying, “Dads in the dog house tonight”. The booth wasn’t offensive to everyone, just one (or he was the only one that spoke up). But it didn’t hurt the group to come up with something else.

We should all be respectful of all living things and should never act with hate, you will loose, every time. Two wrongs do not make a right. I can only hope that the Koran burning does not happen and that someone stops this hateful and stupid man. Not only because his act is disrespectful and hurtful to others but also for the safety of and within our country. All I can do is shake my head when I think of this man.